AXS Machines Stopped Reloading Your EZ-Link Card. Here Is Where Kabayan Top Up Now
From 29 August, AXS Stations no longer top up EZ-Link and SimplyGo cards. Your card still works. Here is every place you can still reload, and the one setting that ends the problem.
You reach the AXS kiosk by the coffee shop, tap for a card top-up out of habit, and the option is gone. From 29 August, AXS Stations no longer reload EZ-Link and SimplyGo EZ-Link cards. For a lot of us, that blue machine at the void deck was the easy Sunday reload before the work week started. It shut one door, so here is every door still open.
What changed
One thing changed. AXS Stations, the self-service kiosks in HDB estates and malls, stopped taking top-ups for EZ-Link and SimplyGo EZ-Link cards on 29 August. Your card still works. Your stored value is untouched. Fares tap the same way at the gantry and on the bus. You lost a reload channel, not the card in your wallet.
One date to watch: because of a company event, SimplyGo Ticket Offices, Ticketing Service Centres and the Contact Centre close from 2pm on 4 September. If you need counter help that Thursday, go in the morning.
Where you can still top up
Every reload option below still works, no AXS needed:
The SimplyGo app. Free on iOS and Android. Link your card, pay by bank card or PayNow, and top up from the MRT platform or from your sofa. For a card you tap at the gate, hold it to your phone's NFC to write the value on.
Auto Top-Up. Set it once. When your balance drops below your chosen amount, it charges your bank card or account and adds value the next time you tap. No more zero-balance freeze at the gantry with a queue building behind you.
General Ticketing Machines and Add Value Machines at MRT stations. Cash or card, every station, all operating hours. This is the closest swap for what AXS used to do.
TransitLink Ticket Offices and passenger service centres at the big interchanges, for cash top-ups and card problems handled by a person.
Convenience stores. 7-Eleven and Cheers outlets do cash top-ups over the counter, handy when you are already grabbing load or a drink.
Which card are you even holding
Two cards get mixed up. The older EZ-Link card stores value on the card itself, so the balance lives in your hand. The newer SimplyGo card and account read your taps and charge the linked payment source, so you top up an account rather than the plastic. Both lost the AXS channel. If you are unsure which one you carry, open the SimplyGo app and add the card. It will tell you what you have and let you reload it either way.
The move most kabayan should make
Set up Auto Top-Up once and this whole change stops mattering. You tap in, the value refills itself, and you never hunt for a machine again. If you would rather keep your hand on the wheel, put the SimplyGo app on your phone tonight and reload with PayNow the moment the balance runs low.
Build one more habit: check your balance on payday, not at the gantry. A card that runs dry at Jurong East during the morning crush costs you a train, and sometimes a late mark at work. Thirty seconds in the app on Friday buys back that Monday.
If you reload for family or a helper
Many of us top up a card for a parent visiting on a Dependant's Pass, or for a kasambahay still finding her way around the apps. The SimplyGo app lets you add and reload more than one card from a single phone, so you can run a whole household's cards without each person installing anything. Turn on their Auto Top-Up too, and nobody gets stranded at a gate they cannot work out.
The kiosk by the coffee shop is gone. The app in your pocket does the same job, at any hour, without the walk to the void deck. Set Auto Top-Up before Monday and this turns into a change you never think about again.
